SMART SIGNED

Project "SMART" data sheet

The following table provides information about the project.

 Partnership

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Map

 Project objective

Due to the many limitations of the conventional water treatment technologies, we are witnessing alarmingly high levels of micro-pollutants (MPs) such as antibiotics, pesticides, herbicides, estrogens, and pharmaceuticals, which enter our surface and groundwater ecosystems. In SMART project we propose to use novel catalytic membranes that have shown promising results in removing a variety of highly persistent organic compounds, with a removal efficiency of over 85%. Our membranes exhibit a unique ability to wirelessly generate surface charges under the influence of magnetic fields, light, and mechanical vibrations. These surface charges generate highly reactive radicals, which possess an excellent degradation tendency towards a wide range of problematic industrial pigments, pharmaceuticals, antibiotics, estrogen, pesticides, herbicides, and disinfectants. The goal of this project is to further enhance the water purification performance of our membranes by optimizing their composition, their shape and pore sizes, as well as the operational parameters, such as flow-rate and residence time. We plan to integrate these improved membranes within a portable water treatment reactor and study its performance in eliminating a variety of MPs from contaminated wastewaters. This prototype will then be used to conduct an extensive pilot-study at a Swiss hospital. Additionally, we plan to use our water purification prototype to provide demonstrations to our potential customers, and highlight the potential of our technology to remove over 85% of these problematic MPs, in a cost and energy efficient manner.